New workshop dates

In the last post I mentioned that workshops would "run the following week" from the new conference dates. I also said that they would "also run on different days".

We can now share the specific dates for the workshops.

Note that Klaus' workshop will be on the Monday before the main conference.

Registrations are open. Places will still be limited, even online, to make sure attendees get the best experience - so book soon if you can.

New dates for the 2020 online event

We can now announce the new dates for the online editon of C++ on Sea 2020.

The main conference will now run from 15th-17th July. Workshops will run the following week, from the 20th.

We decided to move the workshops a little further away, since we no longer have the constraints imposed by venue, accommodation and travel - but we do want to reduce the number of consecutive days people will need to spend watching online.

The workshops will also run on different days from each other - so, potentially, you could attend more than one!

The main conference is still over three days, but we're making some other changes. First it will be three tracks instead of four. Secondly we will run three time slots, plus the keynote, each day - instead of the four we had originally planned. That means the days will not be quite as long. It also means a few less speakers. We'll publish the revised list shortly.

Tickets are back on sale

Registrations are back open again, with tickets for the main conference now at £150 (£125 + VAT). There are also options for one or two days, only - see the tickets page for full details.

Workshops

Workshops are now £399 (down from £450). That's not as big a reduction. It's worth explaining why.

There are actually several factors that go into this. First, most of the value of a workshop is in the content - and access to the instructor (as opposed to the main conference where a significant proportion of the value comes from the socialising, networking, and spontaneous discussions). That hasn't changed much. In fact, as more trainers are trying online training for the first time I'm hearing some reports that it is superior to in person training.

Whether that is the case likely varies, but there is a common sentiment that online training is not a "degraded experience" (see this recent cpp.chat episode).

Second, most of the income from workshop ticket sales goes to the instructors themselves. Our aim is to keep that at a similar level.

And, third, the per-person overhead ratio is very different from the main conference.

Students

Student tickets are now available for just £12!

Existing ticket holders

Now we have firmed up the dates, and a few more details, we'll be contacting those who have previously purchased tickets to set out their options.

This includes the option of a full refund, of course. And if you'd like to continue with the online conference we will refund the difference in the price - plus a little more as a token of our gratitude for sticking with us through these uncertain times.

But we'll also be offering the option get this year's online conference and next year's in person event, just by keeping the original ticket.

Existing student ticket holders will get a full refund - their access this year will be free!

In all cases, dinner tickets will be refunded, of course.

... and there's more

Some of the details are still being worked out, so please make sure you check this news regularly for more updates. You can subscribe to the rss feed, or register for email updates.

C++ on Sea Online

It's been over a month since we posted "2020 Conference Rethink", such has been the complexity of the moving target that is COVID-19, and its impact on our society.

We didn't expect to have taken so long to come to a decision, but it felt like the goalposts have been constantly moving - to the point that we no longer feel confident in being able to put on a physical conference any time this year!

So we have decided to move online.

In the last post we made the statement:

Moving online seems the safest, and most resilient, option - but also the one that misses the most of the value of an event like C++ on Sea.

That second part has been a concern, so we have done a lot of thinking - and also experimented with the format at the C++ London meet-up, which has also moved online. We are now confident that, while it will certainly be different, we can actually offer something valuable and exciting, and which goes some way to recapturing what we looked forward to in physical conference.

In some ways it may even be better! For example speakers can run polls during their talks to guage how audiences break down. Questions can be asked at any time, then answered at well defined stopping points during and/ or after the talks. The talks will be broadcast streamed, but attendees will also have access to video conferencing rooms (using Jitsi) for chatting and networking between the sessions, and in which the speakers will hang out, too.

But there will be some other changes, too. First the date. In consultation with our speakers we have decided to postpone the event to July - probably the week of the 13th. We will announce the exact dates shortly.

We will also be slightly reducing the number of talks. This is because a three-day, four-track, conference is going to be too much for many people to be able to follow entirely online. A number of speakers have either preferred to sit this one out for one (good) reason or another - or have volunteered to defer to next year for the sake of the programme. While it is sad to lose some great speakers, we're just happy to be able to offer a substantial part of the programme this year. We're still finalising this process - full details will be announced shortly.

While we think this is still going to be a great event, which we're all going to get a lot out of, we do recognise that we still lose something in the process of moving online. We also reduce our overheads (although some commitments are lost), so we're reducing the ticket price to £150 for the full conference! If you have already bought tickets we'll be in touch to offer options, including partial or full refunds, depending on how you wish to proceed.

Of course, with the barrier of travel (and accommodation) removed - as well as a reduced ticket price - we hope that many who would not have been able to come are now able to do so. Perhaps if you have been wondering about the conference, but weren't sure whether to commit - this could be a great opportunity for you to get a taste.

Ticket sales will reopen shortly, once all the details, including dates, are finalised.